Julien Boucher's world championship blog

As you know, we’ve just beaten Serbia, ranked fourth in the world, 3-1 (25-20, 25-22, 17-25, 25-23). It was a great match by everyone on our team and a big confidence boost for our next match.

The story of the match was our ability to limit our errors and force the Serbs to play hard from start to finish. The final tally: the Serbs made 30 unforced errors compared to 13 for us. But the Serbs biggest error isn’t on the scoresheet. Their coach decided to start three subs. Whether it was arrogance or disrespect, our players reacted perfectly and executed Glenn’s plan to a tee.

The Serbs added two starters for the second set without any success. In the third, with their pride on the line, the Serbs dominated. But the damage was done and we quickly bounced back in the fourth. It was a big win against a team that has won so many medals through the years. Italy is still in shock.

But we can’t rest on our laurels. The hardest part is yet to come. The Germans are anxious to face us after a tough loss to Poland in five sets that lasted two and a half hours. The Germans have a different style than the Serbs based more on pure power, especially with their service- and less on finesse in their execution. We’ll need to adjust and continue to build on our victory.

Our situation is simple: a win and we are in the second round. A loss combined with a loss by the Serbs to Poland will create a three-way tie for second place in our pool. Since the first tie-breaker is the grand total of points for and against it is impossible at this time to make any assessments.